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La Gazette de L' État de Poudouchéry The Gazette of Puducherry
PART - I
➢ EXTRAORDINAIRE EXTRAORDINARY
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No. 109 Poudouchéry Mardi 29 Décembre 2015 (8 Pausa 1936)
No. Puducherry Tuesday 29th December 2015
GOVERNMENT OF PUDUCHERRY
TRANSPORT SECRETARIAT
(G.O. Ms. No. 27/Tr.Sectt//2015, dated 28th December 2015)
NOTIFICATION
Whereas, taking into consideration, the grim road safety scenario, the Government of India, Ministry of Road Transport and High ways, New Delhi has directed the State/Union Territory Governments to prepare and notify State Level Road Safety Policy and Action Plans in a multipronged approach so as to reduce the incidence of road accidents in the country aiming to reduce fatalities and road accidents by 50% by the year 2020.
And whereas, the Lead Agency with the involvement of Line Departments has prepared the Road Safety Policy and Action Plan for the Union territory of Puducherry.
And, therefore, the Lieutenant-Governor, Puducherry is pleased to approve the Road Safety Policy and Action Plan for the Union territory of Puducherry as appended to this notification. As per the policy statement, the Line Departments shall prepare an action plan for improving road safety in a time bound manner with annual targets and commensurate allocation of resources in coordination with Lead Agency.
[ 769 ]LA GAZETTE DE L'ETAT [ PART-I 770 770 The fund realized vide G.O. Ms. No. 16/Tr.Sectt/2015, dated 20-8-2015 notifying Road Safety Fund Rules for the Union territory of Puducherry and G.O Ms. No. 17/Tr.Sectt/2015, dated 20-8-2015 notifying Compounding of Offences under Motor Vehicles Act,1988, along with budgetary provisions shall be utilized in improving the road safety measures in the Union territory of Puducherry.
This issues with the concurrence of the Finance Department vide their U.O. No. 2403/F-5/A1/15-16, dated 7-10-2015.
(By order of the Lieutenant-Governor)
S. THAMMU GANAPATHY, Deputy Secretary to Government (Transport).
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ROAD SAFETY POLICY AND ACTION PLANS FOR THE UNION TERRITORY OF PUDUCHERRY
1. Preamble :
Puducherry, a Union Territory with legislature, comprises of four regions namely Puducherry, Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam lying geographically separated from one another with an area of 493 sq. kms. Owing to its historic background and better development index is witnessing growing urbanization. As per 2011 census, the population of Union territory of Puducherry is 12.48 lakhs with 68.31% living in urban area. The past two decades have witnessed accelerated urbanization, increased urban sprawl, vehicle ownership, traffic volume which has resulted in congestion, delays, rise in accidents and pollution levels, etc., which poses potential threat to the economic vitality and productive efficiency of the society. There are 7, 59,407 registered vehicles in the Puducherry (as on 10th December 2014) with more than 50% of the private vehicles registered in the last decade. The National Crime Records Bureau has observed highest rate of accidental deaths per lakh population in the Union territory of Puducherry.
Consequent upon the global concern over increasing rate of fatalities arising out of road accidents and the proportion of accidents in developing countries, the United Nations General Assembly has declared "2011-2020" as the "Decade of Action for Road Safety" laying down guidelines to reduce this menace, universally accepted including the Government of India. In pursuance of the direction of Apex Court and the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, the Government of Puducherry has proposed to frame a State Policy on Road Safety covering both preventive and post-accident aspects of Road Safety encompassing initiatives of public policy as well as implementable Action Plan agenda.
A Puducherry Road Safety Policy and Action Plan is a critical initiative in the effort to improve road safety issues to a position of high priority on the state agenda. The policy and Action Plan provides the basis for working toward attaining the vision of "accident free Puducherry" by promoting safe mobility for all. It creates a framework for relevant Governmental departments and Agencies towards the rational use of scarce resources and reducing duplication of effort in fulfilling the set vision.
2. Vision :
The vision for Puducherry is to have accident free and safe mobility for all. The policy will pave way to embrace and incorporate the legislative, enforcement, financial, physical and socio-economic structures required to achieve the set vision in accordance with internationally accepted standards so that all concerned actors in society will work in harmony by cooperating and sharing knowledge, expertise and resources to reduce road accidents.
PART-I ] LA GAZETTE DE L'ETAT 7712.1 Goals :
Efficient road safety work requires the setting of clear objectives. In order to ensure the overall objective of a safe, equitable, sustainable and efficient transportation system, the Government of Puducherry through this policy and Action Plan statements proposes to achieve the following road safety goals:
(i) Reduce the occurrence and severity of road accidents and consequently, the level of fatalities and injuries in an efficient and professional manner.
(ii) Reduce road accidents by at least 50% over the next five years (by 2020) and to maintain zero growth level further.
(iii) Improve road users safety and road users behaviours.
(iv) Periodically evaluate these goals and revisit the same with better knowledge gained in the field.
2.2 Problem statement :
India accounts for 10 per cent of the total 1.3 million road accident fatalities worldwide despite having only one per cent of the world's vehicle population. As per the National Crime Records Bureau's 2013 report, about 1.37 lakh people were killed in around 4.43 lakh road accidents in the year 2013. As reported in 2013, there are about 377 death and 1287 injuries per day due to road accidents.
The National Crime Records Bureau in its 2013 report has reported that the highest rate of accident deaths occur in Union territory of Puducherry with 68.3 deaths per lakh population as compared to National average of 32.6. In 2013, 1451 numbers of road accidents with 228 fatalities have been reported.
The social costs of accidents have been valued between 2 to 3 per cent of the GDP every year. With the above rate, India is lo sing more than ` 1 lakh crore a year because of road accidents besides social costs such as loss of human life and trauma which is to be reversed at the earliest. Therefore, a Road Safety Policy and Action Plan to bring down the accelerating accident rate in the Union territory of Puducherry is the need of the hour.
3. The Policy :
Road safety is a diverse field that requires strong association and partnership both within agencies and with outside organizations in order to facilitate an integrated and coherent approach to policy formulation and implementation.
Road safety is to be considered as a shared responsibility and not as responsibility of single or the nodal agency. The responsibility is to be shared between Government departments, citizens, media, industry, professionals and related NGO's.
The Puducherry Road Safety Policy and Action Plan is formulated in accordance with the six "E's" strategy for the reduction/prevention of accidents devised in the National Road Safety Policy guidelines such as:-
(a) Education
(b) Enforcement
(c) Engineering (Roads and related infrastructure)
LA GAZETTE DE L'ETAT [ PART-I 772 772(d) Engineering (Safer vehicles)
(e) Emergency care and
(f) Enactment and strengthening of institutional mechanism
The policy has been outlined in the following implementable action points:
3.1 Education :
In order to achieve significant improvement in Road Safety, the Government of Puducherry will make serious efforts to promote the awareness about road safety problems, its social and economic implications. It will facilitate various stake holders of State for planning and promoting road safety. As awareness among citizens will enable them to treat it as important State problem, the following action plans are proposed:
(i) The Nodal Agency along with Enforcement Agencies will take up awareness campaigns through Print and Electronic Media and make use of the social networking sites and advertising at social places.
public education campaigns will be undertaken on a sustained basis and there shall be continuous efforts by making use of all available technologies to reach out to general public.
(ii) Special emphasis will be placed in integrating road safety education in the school curriculum and in proper teacher training.
(iii) Volunteers and youth in the villages along National highways and State highways will be identified and their skill in dealing with road safety and trauma care issues will be built.
(iv) Driver education and testing (which leads to certification) will expose learner Drivers to the principles of road safety such as the roles of speed, alcohol and drugs in accidents; the value of safety device use; road rage managing skills; night driving; the importance of route planning and time scheduling.
(v) Driver education in terms of refresher training to heavy vehicle Drivers and school bus Drivers will be provided for which model driver training schools will be established with a system of training, certification and re-certification of Drivers and certification of driving Instructors to improve efficiency and to minimize fraudulent activities.
(vi) In line with National Road Safety Week events, the road safety week will be observed annually during January month wherein, the set targets will be evaluated and reset. Community educative programmes and media sensitive workshops such as rallies, street plays, puppet shows and etc., will be organised as part of road safety education.
3.2 Enforcement :
Government will seek to improve the quality of traffic enforcement and respond positively to Union Governments initiative. Adequate resources will be provided and mechanisms strengthened for the effective enforcement of traffic rules and regulations. The following Action Plans are proposed:
PART-I ] LA GAZETTE DE L'ETAT 773(i) There shall be zero tolerance applied in relation to traffic violations.
(ii) Sufficient law enforcement officials and traffic wardens will be engaged to enforce traffic rules and regulations and will be provided with all necessary equipments to check violations.
(iii) Stringent Driver Licence procedures (testing the competency) and Stringent Fitness certificate procedures of vehicles (Roadworthiness test of vehicles) will be adhered.
(iv) Strict enforcement on violations of speed limits, red light jumping, use of mobile phones while driving, drunken driving, dangerously parked vehicles along highways overloaded commercial/ passenger vehicles, dangerous projections and etc., will be carried out and prosecuted.
(v) GPS/GIS based intelligent transport system combined with control centre will be established for proper monitoring of traffic and proper data on traffic offences will be captured in order to prosecute and prevent traffic offences.
3.3 Engineering (Roads and related infrastructure) :
The Government will take steps to promote conscious planning for safe design of roads, Safe roads and related infrastructure provisioning in Puducherry will be initiated with identification and rectification of black spots. Identification of locations with a high incidence of accidents will be mapped and corrective measures undertaken to reduce conflicts in moving traffic. Enforcement Agencies in Puducherry shall map the black spots and the information shall be shared with concerned agency for implementation of roads and infrastructure. The Government will adopt the following accident reduction strategies in providing safe road infrastructure:
(i) By conducting necessary Road Safety Audits (RSA) as per the protocol defined, the black spots on all major roads will be identified and Action Plan will be devised for eliminating the black spots by providing proper transition from higher order to lower order roads by providing proper pedestrian cross overs and by providing speed calming measures. Roads will be designed, constructed upgraded and made consistent with code of practice and Indian Road Congress standards.
All State/National Highways will carry pavement markings and road signs as per Indian Road Congress Standards.
(ii) The integrity of the right of way for Road will be maintained and shall be kept free of obstacles. Roads and sidewalks will be kept free of hawkers, derelict vehicles, unauthorized vehicles, debris and obstacles. Hawkers shall be shifted to designated hawking zones as identified in the Comprehensive Development Plan.
(iii) The capacity requirements of all roads will be reviewed on regular basis and adequate provision for all categories of road users such as motor vehicle, non-motorised traffic and pedestrians will be upgraded accordingly, in keeping with the approved Comprehensive Development Plans and Mobility plans prepared.
LA GAZETTE DE L'ETAT [ PART-I 774 774(iv) Road side facilities will be provided and upgraded to give added protection to vulnerable road users such as disabled, aged and children, continuous footpaths with adequate width, pavement heights and ramps will be provided.
(v) Adequate guidance and information to road users will be provided and maintained through road signs, signals and markings along all the roads in Puducherry.
(vi) All roads in the Union territory of Puducherry will be provided with lighting facilities fulfilling Lux levels of International standards.
(vii) All the railway crossings in Puducherry will be provided with manned railway gates, Railway-Over-Bridge (ROBs) and Railway-Under- Bridge (RUBs) depending upon the peak PCUs and train crossings.
(viii) By conducting proper traffic studies, the public transport route network will be rationalized and priority for public transport system will be provided with necessary bus bays and bus shelters.
3.4 Engineering (Safer vehicles) :
The Government will take steps to promote statutory periodic inspection as an essential check on the road-worthiness of all vehicles. Government will take stringent measures to air quality emissions from vehicles. The Government of Puducherry will emphasize the following:
(i) The regime of inspection and certification system and auditing of vehicle inspection centres will be implemented and it will be ensured that the vehicles plying on the road confirm to Bharat Standards stipulated from time to time.
(ii) The commercial vehicles will be compelled to provide Speed Governance and GPS system for tracking and monitoring.
(iii) It will be ensured that proper night reflective tapes are provided in all vehicle categories including non-motorized vehicles. Under protection devices in trucks and buses, proper installation of mirrors, shutters and other facilities required as per Statutory Provisions will be ensured while issuing Annual Fitness Certificates.
3.5 Emergency care :
The Government of Puducherry will make its earnest effort to ensure that the persons involved in road accidents benefit from speedy and effective trauma care and health management. The essential functions of such services will include the provisions of rescue operation including pre medical care, First aid at site of accident, transportation of victim to appropriate hospital within the safe golden hour. In order to ensure medical care to accident victims within minimum response time say 20 to 30 minutes, the following Action Plans are proposed:
(i) A Framework for the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) System with the aim of providing effective and economical emergency care will be developed so as to maintain uniformity and continuity across the State. This framework will specify the broad specifications, guidelinesPART-I ] LA GAZETTE DE L'ETAT 775 and protocols for the various components of EMS System viz., Ambulances, Trauma Centres, Emergency Departments, Emergency Medical Technicians, Communication, Dispatch Centres, Command and Control Posts, etc.
(ii) Efficient towing and recovery of accident vehicles will be implemented so as to reduce traffic congestion due to accidents.
(iii) A periodic audit for the already supplied ambulances and cranes will be done with respect to their location, availability, utilization, efficacy, manpower, uptime, etc.
(iv) The ambulances will be equipped with all emergency lifesaving equipment's and CCTV's to interact with the Doctors while the seriously injured person is in transit to the hospital.
(v) A single toll-free helpline system will be established in order to effect seamless networking amongst health facilities, rescue services, existing fleet of ambulances and etc.,
(vi) Regular training in first aid to the people who are near the highways, heavy motor vehicle Drivers and Conductors will be carried out.
(vii) Capacity building of Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) and Doctor's with requisite skills in emergency response services will be developed.
(viii) The Government Health Centres will be upgraded with proper trauma care facilities.
3.6 Enactment (strengthening of institutional mechanism) :
The Government will make effective institutional arrangement and shall create State Road Safety Fund with the objective of strengthening road safety and implementation of road safety measures in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The following Action Plans are proposed:
(i) The Road Safety Cell functioning in the Lead Agency viz., Transport Department and the Traffic Police Unit in the Police Department will be strengthened.
(ii) The penalty for traffic rules violations will be notified and from the compounding of offences, State Road Safety Fund will be created.
(iii) The Road Safety Cell will organize periodic workshops on road safety and ensure capacity building of officials from departments such as Education Department, Excise Department, Health Department, Local Administration Department, Police Department, Public Works Department, Revenue Department, Town and Country Planning Department, Transport Department and etc.,
(iv) The Road Safety Cell will create a mechanism for accident reporting and a Road Safety information data base using the State of Art Technology for black spots identification and analysis and for seamless report generation will be established.
LA GAZETTE DE L'ETAT [ PART-I 776 7764. Conclusion :
The Line Departments such as Education Department, Excise Department, Health Department, Local Administration Department, Police Department, Public Works Department, Revenue Department, Town and Country Planning Department, Transport Department and etc., will prepare Action Plans based on this policy statement and with the coordination of Lead Agency will implement the Action Plans so as to reduce the incidence of road accidents from the present trend by 50 % by 2020 and to maintain zero growth level further.
The District/Regional/High Level Road Safety Committees and the State Road Safety Council will periodically monitor and evaluate the status of road safety in the Union Territory of Puducherry.
The Road Safety Policy and Action Plans will be reviewed periodically once in three years and goals will be reset.
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